Seven Deadly Sins: Pride | David Marvin

[Music] all right well um we are continuing this series but i i wanted to start by just addressing clearly everything going on and i hate that what i'm about to do is going to fall so short of communicating and expressing how tremendously grieved hurting sad confused shocked and just really heartbroken over not just the death of george floyd but the pain that is rippling through so many people but especially inside the church and um are black and brown brothers and sisters in christ i uh have been sick all day and this weekend thinking about and praying about and fasting about how to use just the moments we have here tonight and i want you to know that we are standing with you that we are praying with you and that i see you as more family and more blood than members of my own family who don't know jesus there's a saying that blood is thicker than water which means his family runs deeper than friendships and while blood is thicker than water the cross is thicker and stronger than them both and you are [Music] our brothers and our sisters and we mourn and are just really grieved alongside of you and are listening and when you hurt we are hurting with you and are so grateful that we get to be in a family that it has all the different spectrums of ethnicity and race and you matter and um all the pain that you're feeling we are heartbroken over so let me pray and uh we'll dive in father i do thank you that because of the cross of christ every person red yellow black and white who trusts in you is connected and bonded and sealed and kindred spirits for all of eternity because they have the holy spirit i pray that you would continue to eradicate and expose and remove injustice racism police brutality and all kinds of evil from our land would you help us as the church to cling to you to love one another and to look like you did when you walked this earth so help us god would you fill any gaps just with your grace even on i know there are no words and no things that can be said that in a message can heal so much of the pain that's being felt but you can and so help us in christ's name amen um well if you're listening and joining us online there's a handful of friends and volunteers that are here and i thought i'd start by asking just a question or give us some direction for where we're going tonight if there was one sin that you could remove from the earth what would it be one that you are most angry opposed to what would you say would you say murder other ones rape prejudice abuse hatred jealousy sorry it's a great one to remove i think if you look at scripture and you ask that question which sin is god most opposed to there's one that over and over and over he seems to highlight and it is a sin of pride he says in proverbs 8 chapter chapter 8 verse 13 i hate pride and arrogance evil behavior and perverse speech he says in isaiah chapter 57 verse 15 the high and lofty one god who lives in eternity the holy one says this i live in a high and holy place and with those whose spirits are humble are contrite and humble that he says hey i dwell not only in eternity and heavens of heavens in the highest place but also only with the humble over and over and over the scriptures say god is opposed to the proud he gives grace to the humble the image is like hey you're in a boxing ring you got you over here if you're proud and god over here and that's how he feels towards pride what's crazy about pride is honestly it's one of the more acceptable sins i think in most of our lives or in my life like if i was up here and i was like hey i've just been struggling with any of the ones or a lot of the ones that you just named like hey i've been struggling with abuse or i've been struggling with you know having sex outside of marriage with someone other than my wife most of you would be like dude what you just lost the right to talk up here but if i was to say man i've been struggling with pride most of us would be like who isn't right like it's one of the more acceptable ones that we feel or we're almost so accustomed to and yet when you read the bible over and over and over god is so clear i am opposed to pride partially because so many of the other sins we're going to talk about in this series of seven deadly sins which is a funny title because every sin is by definition deadly the wages of sin is death the bible says but we're just grabbing these huge pillars of sins that our generation can wrestle with and tonight on pride and one of the reasons god is opposed to it is because as many theologians have said for a long time you can trace the root of so many other sins back to pride ces lewis put it this way sexual sin anger greed drunkenness etc are all nothing in comparison to pride it was through pride that the devil became the devil in other words satan was cast out of heaven because he wanted to be god which was pride pride leads to every other sin it is the complete anti-god state of mind god hates pride because it kills relationships and pride will keep you out of heaven because it will not allow you to say i need a savior the challenge of a message like this let you into the preaching world is pride is a weird topic because people who are proud are not going to listen to a message on pride because they don't think they need it so it's a frustrating thing because the people who actually need to hear it are the ones that are least likely to and so if you're listening right now and you're going ah man pride that really doesn't apply to me i'm not really a prideful person you are exactly the person i'm talking about and pride to any degree that creeps into our life is always toxic and poisonous especially to relationships what we're about to discuss if the church will do it won't overnight heal every problem that's taking place it won't overnight remove and eradicate racism but it will move the church in the direction of unifying together and bringing healing into our world what we're about to talk about for the next 25 minutes so i just want to walk through uh philippians chapter 2 where paul talks about pride and humility i'm going to incorporate some other scriptures that will inform it but i just want to talk about how pride presents what it looks like what pride prevents in our life and then where pride ends so if you're taking notes those are the three ideas i just want to talk through from philippians chapter two philippians paul wrote to the church in philippi this letter that he wrote from a jail cell today we call it philippians or the letter of philippians and here's what he says in verse three of chapter two don't be selfish don't try to impress other people be humble thinking of others as better than yourself don't look out only for your own interests but take an interest or look out for the interests of others as we launch in a conversation about pride and humility one of the challenges is that pride masquerades or wears different faces when it surfaces in our life like pride inside of all of our lives looks different in different ways it can come up and pop up and it's not always overtly like sometimes it's easy to spot the guy who's like overly cocky he's still talking about his high school football days and how great he was and just he's all about himself that person it's clear like man that guy's arrogant he struggles with pride but pride this obsession with self and self focus which is what pride is can pop up in a lot of different ways it can pop up as self-love but it also pops up as self-hate because at the center of your thoughts and your focus and all of those is still self both of those can be pride pride can pop up as insecurity where i'm afraid to talk and i'm afraid of what other people think about me because at the center of your thought is still you i'm constantly looking like some of some people like there are people who are tremendously quiet who struggle with incredible pride because they're just afraid there's times the bible commands us to speak and they're afraid to speak because they're afraid of oh no what are people going to think that's pride it's not always overtly clear if somebody's struggling with crime with pride it can also look like being judgmental towards other people who struggle with sins sexual attractions who have challenges or struggles in their life that you don't and you look down on or i look down on them because of it pride also looks like taking credit for things that you didn't earn you didn't deserve that everything that you've been given the bible says is all a gift of god's grace in your life paul in first corinthians chapter 4 verse 7 says this what do you have that you did not receive the way that you look the mind that you have the job that you have the family you were born into the city that you live in everything paul says is something that's foolish to be proud about because all of it was a gift that you can't take credit for you're not responsible for being born into whatever family you were and you'd be thinking no but i work hard at my job you're not responsible for having the mind that god gave you that allowed you to work for having legs that allow you to get up and move around every day paul says everything has been a gift from god and it's foolish and pride looks like hey man i'm taking credit because i worked really hard i earned this pride looks like entitlement instead of gratitude i'm focused on what i don't have that other people had again at the center of that is self pride looks defensive man i hate this one because i is this one and that a lot of times in my life defensiveness can pop up where i will dismiss or defend or i don't want to listen and at the center of that is a pridefulness that thinks that i'm right pride can look in all these different ways instead of life pride could look like shame and you may be going pride shame or guilt for a christian who's trusted in jesus pride can look like shame because any time that i rehearse that and i just get covered in shame i am saying that my sin is more powerful than the grace of god or my sin is more powerful than what christ did my actions are more powerful than the actions jesus took on the cross pride can pop up in all kinds of forms in our life it can look like being stressed out because i'm so worried and i feel like the entire world rests on me which is a lie and that's pride and still has me at the center of it pride can look like being easily offended like somebody who's prideful is often easily offended because hey you hit self and the most important important thing in the universe is myself and you offended me pride can pop up in lots of different ways pride looks like unwillingness to apologize until someone else owns their part i know josiah's been there before and uh i'm totally kidding we all have pride looks like i'm unable to see anything other than you know the issues and the reasons why i'm justified and not doing something else and i don't have to move it towards that person that's pride pride even in this moment for me is more concerned about what you and you think of what i'm going to teach tonight than what god thinks about what i'm teaching tonight pride can pop up in lots of different ways one exercise would be helpful you should consider doing because pride is a little bit like bad breath if you have it you can't really tell that you have it is to ask people in your life how do you think pride manifests itself in my life my guess is they're gonna have an answer you probably won't like the answer because you're prideful just like i am but knowing how does pride pop up in my life this week i i did that practice with several different people and uh and asked hey how do you feel like pride pops up in my life and the answer multiple times was you have a bent and in default you think that you were right always and that makes you less quick to listen and less quick to be empathetic and i hate it and they're right and i'm prideful and there's areas where i need god to come in and expose and kill i don't know what areas you have but you need to know how does pride profits up pop itself up in my life and if you don't think it does you have deceived yourself and you are prideful and having other believers in your life that can help you go hey this is how pride is going to pop up or this is how i've seen it pop up in your life ask them that question this week if they take nothing else away from this message if you just get that you will be on the step towards not allowing pride to kill relationships and kill your faith in defining humility he also gives us a look into what pride prevents us from having in our own life so the second idea from this text is just here's what pride prevents specifically relationships pride is the enemy of relationships like paul is saying hey in humility look to other people care and be concerned about the needs of other people be less concerned about yourself and more concerned about others and pride comes in and it says don't care about them you need to focus on you they're all wrong it begins to turn your focus inward and it creates a prison where i begin to lock other people out i lock god out and myself in where i'm not willing to listen to others pride right now looks like a white person saying i didn't do anything wrong or i didn't do anything racist let's move on without first listening pride can look like a black person saying man this is never going to change i'm over it i'm done both of those things can be anchored in pride and anytime pride is present the enemy or satan is working and winning and wants to take that and drive as deep as he can a wedge and division because he hates relationships and pride is the enemy of relationships it kills them every single time pride will prevent and shut you out from true greatness in your life because in order to be truly great jesus said in mark chapter 10 that involves you serving other people not focusing on yourself in mark chapter 10 verse 43 he said this whoever wants to be great must be your servant he redefines what greatness is that's what greatness is this is why pride prevents you from ever having true greatness because you're unwilling to be a servant whoever wants to be first must be slave of all for the son of man that's god did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many serving requires humility pride also prevents you from growing proverbs chapter 12 verse 15 says the way of a fool seems right to them but the wise listen to advice you know what's interesting about the verse i think everybody thinks for the most part what's right to them is right to them like most of us are not like you know this is what i believe but i'm pretty sure i'm wrong most of us think i'm right the difference in the verse is that one is willing to listen to others and receive instruction and one is not the fool is just saying i know i'm right i'll always be right there's nothing i'm missing here and the wise person it's not that they don't still think they're right they're just willing to listen pride prevents you from growing because it prevents you from listening from growing from receiving feedback from other people in your life and in your world and to the degree that you were unwilling to listen to others is the degree to which you are not going to grow grow in your faith grow in maturity grow overall finally pride prevents you from a relationship with god pride prevents you from coming to a place where you say man i need a savior i don't need just another chance i'm not a good enough person it prevents you from seeing god as perfect and holy and you not being worthy of it jesus in matthew chapter five and one of the first words that we're told that he taught people he said blessed are the spiritually poor or the poor in spirit for they will receive or for theirs is the kingdom of heaven what does it mean to be spiritually poor it means i see myself as not worthy that if i have a relationship with the god who's there it's not because i earned it or i deserve it it's because god is going to initiate and god has provided a way for that to happen if you can't comment candidly this is the issue i think that sends more people to hell than any other issue they never arrive at a place where they see themselves as look i'm not a good enough person i'm not ever going to be deserving of a relationship with god i try to pay my taxes i try to be nice i give you know to the poor every once in a while and five bucks the guy in the corner but i'm not a good enough person most people hide behind like no i'm really at the end of the day like i'm a good person god you know i'm sure he's gonna accept good people the bible says there are no good people and only those who recognize that they bring nothing to the table and are willing to accept the free gift that god has given are going to experience eternity with god pride doesn't just kill relationships here it will end or keep you out of heaven it's the thing that through satan as i mentioned early and so prided satanic in many ways as i mentioned earlier pride also puts you in the opposition of god over and over three times in the new testament it's the same phrase it's really interesting if you're god and you're writing you know inspiring the writers and over and over he includes this phrase that hey god opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble god opposes the proud gives grace to the humble god opposes the prophet giving christ to the humble it's as though he's defining or helping you see what people who god is along with are on the same team as and those who he is opposed to or playing in opposition against hey these people who are my team the clothing humility those who are not on my team they're clothed in pride i mean think about that you guys remember when we had sports r.i.p when that was a thing you could tell a team by what you could tell who was on what team by the jersey that they were wearing right from the biblical perspective pride is the jersey of the opposing team that god says man you if that is what you're wearing you are in opposition to me anytime that is the attitude or the posture or the way that you are operating you and i place ourselves in the opposition of the thing that god wants to bless and that god does bless god hates pride because it kills relationships and it kills people's ability to have a relationship with him pride is the thing that is killing our country right now pride was the original sin that was introduced when white superiority and white pride was introduced that there could be inferior races pride continues to plague and be a part of dismantling and dividing and creating division and an unwillingness to come together and say man i want to listen and i want to listen to you and i want to hear and both sides doing that will continue to perpetuate division and it is killing our country this obsessiveness of self is killing just society and it will kill our faith and it'll kill relationships do you guys know how many selfies a day are taken in the world take a guess a million that's not a bad guess 2 million 100 million close 93 million is what i read this week 93 million selfies the selfie apparently came on the scene in like 2011 uh you know and who knows if before that people were turning around a kodiak camera that they wind up and take it but at least and then with smartphone and all those things and that that terminology kind of got launched on the scene and since then people have been you know taking selfies it's kind of a picture really of how society has only further moved more and more towards a focus on self do you guys know what there's something called um selfie death by selfie and it's pretty tragic honestly death by selfie is uh what they would term the hundreds of people who in effort to get the best selfie possible ended up dying because they fell off some cliff in machu picchu or they got attacked by a walrus that actually happened or they fell off some cliff in order to get the best possible picture of themselves in the place that they were at they ended up losing their life but they're a selfie and self-focused it cost them their life and it is costing the self-focused pride anytime it enters any of our hearts it will cost you relationships it will cost you future marriage it will cost you your life and your eternal life if you're not willing to through humility except you're unworthy and undeserving of a relationship with god and it's killing and will kill our country but it doesn't have to and paul says humility should mark the people of god which brings us to our third point which is where pride ends he lays out what humility is and then he says this you must have the same attitude that christ jesus had or the same mindset though he was god he did not think equality with god as something to cling to instead he gave up his divine privileges he took the humble position of a slave was born as a human being when he appeared in human form he humbled himself in obedience to god and died a criminal's death on the cross paul lays out and gives us the greatest picture of humility that there could ever be and he says jesus not only had a mindset of humility it led him to actions and moved him to act in humility by humbling himself to such a great extent that i i'm confident no illustration i could possibly give would put into words what it just said it just the passage just said though he was god period anything that it follows up with after that that doesn't include he decided to destroy anybody who opposed him or he decided you know i'm just gonna start this whole universe over or i'm gonna make up some anything that would involve him saying i'm going to go to the world i created to become like one of the humans that i created and to die in the place of all people everywhere and for all people everywhere the analogy's been used it would be like you know if you had an ant farm and you were like man i want to save this ant farm and so you decided because you were god you could become an ant you became an ant and then the ant farm rallied around it was like get rid of them and they decided to crucify and kill you but even that would fall incredibly short of the eternal perfect holy god who came into this earth reflected perfection did nothing wrong was completely wronged though he was completely right himself and yet he made the move and sought to reconcile to such a link that it wasn't just you know he he said um he initiated the apology conversation he was willing to move to such a degree that even if it cost him being crucified for people who didn't respect him who didn't want him who didn't care about him he was willing to do it and paul instructs that as the church what should marcus is the mindset and the movements of humility it's been said that humility is not thinking less of yourself it's thinking about others more or thinking about yourself less it's moving towards people in the conversation it's moving towards and owning your part even before they've ever said they're sorry humility is a thing that allows you to do things like this some of you may have seen pictures of police officers and people protesting here's another one you can't have that without humility here's another one the last one that's something that doesn't take place unless one person is going to say hey i'm not here to you know two sides or decide who's wrong or who's right i'm here to move towards unity and healing and coming together and you cannot do that without humility peter says in first peter chapter five all of you clothe yourself with humility towards one another because god opposes the proud but he shows favor to the humble humble yourselves therefore under god's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time he says the analogy of wearing humility continually it's like clothes that you wear just like you get up and every day you put on clothes to go to your job you never would go to your job without wearing clothes peter says that's the way you're to think about humility which makes sense because the moment that humility is something that i'm like oh man i feel like i'm being humble right now five minutes later i'm angry i'm defensive i'm dismissive i'm prideful and he says you gotta constantly be putting this thing on like something that you wear what's further interesting is humility is one of those things that man it just looks good on everybody like unlike pride that looks good on nobody like the guy who's like i want to talk about me myself and i and let me tell you how great i am that guy is repulsive for that girl is repulsive am i right like if you're listening and you want to be more attractive overnight i'm about to give you the key if you were hit by the ugly stick when you were born this will make you more attractive by the time this message is over just be humble am i wrong ladies am i right like the guy who's like hey he's i'm gonna hit her take credit i'm here to give credit i'm here to serve i care about you they're going out of their way and they're like i'm so sorry was that was that over the line you're like why are you even apologizing right now and they are overly humble it's unbelievably attractive and the same thing is how unattractive pride is in our lives it's at the same time not always very comfortable to put on humility in other words it's like this thing that is so attractive when you wear but it's also uncomfortable you know kind of anywhere because i think sometimes we think like oh you know when i'm humble it'll feel comfortable i don't think it feels comfortable all the time i think there's times where i have to be like look i don't want to move forward in this conversation and own my part but that's because i'm prideful so i'm making the decision i'm pushing through it i'm not letting pride on me i'm gonna decide hey will you please forgive me i'm gonna make the phone call i'm gonna initiate and take the first step it's not always comfortable but it's the thing that i'm supposed to wear it's like anything that our ladies probably can relate to there's items of clothing that you're like yeah hey it's not the most comfortable but it's my favorite item i feel like i like how i look the best in it this is just a dangerous ground that i'm walking on right now um but it's like that it's that item that it's not always comfortable it's always attractive and it's always the thing that brings healing and allows relationships to flourish and peter says and the bible affirms it's something that you and i are to put on every single day i have a friend who thinks of just his day in the morning and he begins to think through all the different ways he needs to put on humility as he anticipates i'm going to go on that meeting i'm going to be tempted to be prideful or defensive or angry or hurt or and i need to put on humility i want to think through the lens of the other person i want to think through how to care for them and he says he goes through and every single day he begins starts his day part of it by thinking through how do i put on humility and everything that i'm gonna face and experience today what does that look like and peter says every day you wake up you put it on you put it on the two ways that scripture just pointed out is humility towards god and towards other people humility towards god and that i trust god's timing hunter humble yourselves under god's mighty hand that he will lift you up in due time i trust his timing over the circumstances and the story he's writing in my life i trust his timing over when i'm going to get married it's just his timing over the opportunities or lack of opportunities that i have at work i trust god in the midst of all of it i'm humbling myself and trusting he's sovereign over everything that i'm experiencing facing i trust him and then it's also acting towards others and serving other people it's seeking to serve it's being humble towards other people seeking to be quick to listen and put on humility through my actions i don't know what jesus would call you in your life right now to do in terms of humble but i know that that mindset is supposed to lead to actions in all of us so some of us may need to leave this message and you got to go pick up the phone you got to make a phone call whatever link he would call you to i know it's not as far as he went by humbling himself to such a point that he would even die a criminal's death on a cross i don't know where pride manifests itself in your life i don't know where you need to move in through the uncomfortable action of humility but to all of us jesus says this is the thing that brings healing and no one is being asked to go anywhere or to any place that is farther than the links that i went for you and for me humility it really is like habits like these humble habits and so as we kind of wrap up here's what i really i hope you leave here i hope you hear me i want you to pick a fight with your pride i want you to pick a fight and say hey i'm not going to let you control my life anymore like you don't get to control my relationships anymore pride you for the last 22 years you have decided whether or not i'm going to keep being friends with somebody because once i get hurt i'm out of there once i accidentally hurt somebody i'm like oh they're so offended so easily so i'm out of here we're not even friends anymore how long are you going to live that way how long are you going to let pride decide and determine your relationships how long are you going to let pride not allow you to have a relationship with your sister or your parent or your old roommate or that friend how long are you going to hide behind your pride and blame other people or point the finger be unwilling to own your part whatever it is in whatever conflict there is how long i just want you to answer honestly to yourself i think i'm going to do it for the rest of my life just own it just say it just live in that and embrace it but for the rest of us the scripture clearly calls us hey i want you to pick a fight with your pride it doesn't have to control you and the way that you decide it's not controlling me it's by pushing through even when it's uncomfortable i'm not going to allow my feelings my pride to determine my life tragically most people never do that and they go through and that's why our world is so dysfunctional the world runs on pride a world loves pride feeds pride and there's nothing god hates more because it's killing people and it's killing relationships and he says for the church it shouldn't be this way conclusion how does pride manifest itself in your life what is pride preventing you from like what relationships are now and how would god how would jesus like if he if somebody was going to sit down with you and be like hey jesus called all of us to follow him with our lives how would he begin to say hey i want you to follow me and act like i act and be humble even when other people are not it's a really painful really uncomfortable experience but it's one that as believers we've been invited to and when we do it brings healing to the church and this is something man i don't know if it discourages or encourages people who are listening i am prideful we do something called regeneration here at watermark it's like a recovery thing and one of the three things that i entered into it was because i have pride in my life and i hate it and it's through deciding and moving towards people and not having to be right which is not always easy or being okay with not getting the last word in or being okay with those things when those are marking my life typically it means that i'm doing better with the battle of pride what's tragically happened i'll close here our world is so fed this narrative to put you in the middle like you're the focus or i'm the focus of life and i'm the sinner and i should be the sinner and life is about me and anyone who hurt me or anything that happened to me i need to focus on me focus on me me me and life is not found there it's depressing narcissism leads to anxiety narcissism like the obsession and focus of like the world revolves around me it leads to me cutting off relationships it comes naturally but it leads to a place where i'm all alone i'm cut off from god my intimacy with other friends or intimacy with god it cuts me off from my wife and anytime that i buy the lie that hey man life is about you or you by the lie that life is about you you lose there was a astronomer in the 1500s named nicholas copernicus you guys know that is heard of him i got a couple heads shaking somebody paid attention chemistry he basically came up with something called the heliocentric theory heliocentric theory at that time introduced the idea that hey i don't think the world revolves or the universe revolves around the earth the universe revolves around the sun and people are like nah that's crazy that can't be the case and he was like i'm looking at these telescopes and i'm telling you guys i think we revolve around the sun and there's something took place called a copernican revolution where people were introduced that oh the universe doesn't revolve around us it revolves around the sun what needs to take place in the life of every single christian is embracing on a daily basis the world around me does not revolve around me it revolves around the son of god and anytime that i put myself in the middle or i'm more concerned about me and all of the things in my life than i am about god pride is invaded in and having a revolution take place where i put back at the center of life jesus all of life revolves around jesus you cannot experience the life that he wants you to have the life that our world needs what our church needs to be without putting jesus at the center of the story all of it revolves around him in that response despite the fact that he is at the center of the universe whether i believe it or accept it or not he took the response that he is at the center of the universe but even though that was true he became a man and humbled himself to the point of even dying on a cross and because of that because of the reverse economy of way god works that opposite of our world around us god said hey that name will be the name that above every other person on planet earth will be exalted forever and ever and ever that whoever humbles himself will be exalted and he went to the greatest length of humility and humbling himself and because of that paul finishes the passage and says this therefore god elevated him to the place of highest honor gave him the name above every other name that is the name of jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue declare that jesus christ is lord to the glory of the father i don't know how we move forward or what it will look like when we move forward but i know that scripture indicates that it only can happen if humility marks our life and we come to the table and we listen and there's so much division and i hate it and i hate any ways that i'm contributing or have contributed to it or hate even just the pain that people are experiencing and i want to talk to my friends who have for so long displayed humility and patience and grace who make up the black and brown brothers and sisters in christ the way that you so many of you have pushed through pain unspeakable pain pain that candidly i don't know if this is surprising you i'm a white guy i'll never actually experience or understand or totally be able to relate to and yet despite that despite all the pain that has marked your life or maybe has been a part of the story that god has written you patiently continue you endure suffering in the face of injustice like i may never be able to experience or will probably never experience and you keep going the way that you patiently come alongside other christian believers and brothers and sisters in the body of christ you help them you engage in conversations you don't shame them you don't dismiss them you walk with them and you look like jesus and you inspire me and you strengthen our church and you strengthen the body of christ and i'm so grateful and i like so many others when i see the pain and hurt my heart breaks but the answer and the next step or whatever god's going to do in our church it will involve us coming together and listening and loving we are blood because we have been bonded by the blood of jesus and i'm not going to do it perfectly and i haven't done it perfectly and i'll never do it perfectly and i need your help and you need our help we are the only hope the world has there's no solution if the people of god can't unite and be bonded what other hope do we have but we can and it involves humility i don't know what actions you need to take this week i know some of us need to reach out and we need to make phone calls we need to follow up we need to ask others to help us see our pride in our life all of which are just going to take steps in the direction of what jesus says is true greatness it steps in the direction of being marked by the quality that has the potential to heal our world to heal our hurts and to unite our church the body of christ all over the world let me pray father i thank you for just the ways that you are greater than the world around us you are stronger you restore you heal you bring unity you know well what it was like to experience injustice and i see in the reflection of many of my black brown friends i see you in them i see the way that they experience injustice it's not fair that's not right that's not deserved and yet despite all of that they look to you they push through they respond as you call them to and they look like you i pray that you would heal or land god you would end the division at least in the church we can't be responsible for the division and the world around us but we can as a body of christ come together and so will you help us i'm praying right now for every every word and every sentence that i just spoke that someone out right now is listening to that dismissed every other thing that i said because they held on to that and rightly or wrongly heard something that discouraged them that you would meet them where they are with grace you'd help us be your people forgive us for the ways that we haven't been unite us together make us like christ we worship you now in song amen

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Keywords: the, porch, dallas, watermark, community, church, christian, christianity, ministry, movement, fort, worth, faith, sermon, dating, truth, bible, advice, biblical, counsel, jonathan pokluda, the porch, watermark community church, young adults, fort worth, david marvin, todd wagner, the bible

Id: wLKzw0wcGJw

Length: 44min 13sec (2653 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 03 2020